Pages

Monday, May 31, 2010

Making Sense

I went to the beach over the weekend.
This morning, my mom and I were sitting (well, technically I was lying down) on the sand and talking.
Something came up that we were arguing about. She took it as an attack, and I told her that I was just trying to understand, because what she was saying wasn't making much sense to me.
She angrily told me that not everything makes sense.
I told her that everything can make sense- we just haven't discovered the explanations behind everything yet.

She said "Does it make sense for millions of people to die in Haiti?" (her implied answer was no, of course.)
I said "Well, yeah, actually. There was an earthquake. Of course people were going to die. It wouldn't have made sense if they hadn't."
She ignored me and said "Does war make sense?"
And I was going to say yes, there are logical reasons to go to war, even if I/we/some people don't think those reasons are sufficient to make it worthwhile, some people do find them acceptable.
But then I realized that neither of those things would make sense to someone who expects the world to be perfect, or thinks the world should be. (Notice I say "thinks the world should be" as opposed to "wants the world to be.")

Thinking/expecting the world to be perfect is a problem. It makes the person angry when things disobey that expectation. That may often be the reason behind the conflicts between my mom and I.
And I'm not saying I don't subconsciously expect/think the world should be perfect. Who doesn't?

Loads of things in the world don't make sense if the world is supposed to be perfect. That leads me to believe that it isn't.
Extrapolate from that what you wish.